About us

Campus Crops is a student run urban gardening initiative at McGill University's downtown campus. We want to grow food on campus, by students, for students. We have been running garden behind the School of Environment building at 3534 University since 2007. In 2009 we started a terrace garden behind the James Administration building. We're really excited to keep improving these two spaces, and need lots of helping hands for the summer ahead! Get in touch and get gardening!

Every year thousands of foreign workers pour into the farm lands of Canada, admitted into the country as "temporary foreign workers." Working under exploitative conditions, often denied access to the same rights and privileges of Canadian citizens, these workers produce the food that ends up in the grocery stores of Montreal, the food that we eat.

Members of the Immigrant Workers Centre and Dignidad Migrante will discuss the intersections between food production and the racist and exploitative nature of Canada's immigration policies.

This workshop will offer information and testimonials about Canadian Temporary Foreign Worker Programs (focusing particularly on the Seasonal Agricultural Workers Program (SAWP)) with the aim of uncovering a side of "food politics" that often goes under-examined.

*Workshop presented in English, French and Spanish, with live translation towards English.*

Tuesday, July 12, 2011

Be it through different agricultural, political or organizational models, there are so many ways to grow food in an urban setting.

Join Campus Crops for a bike tour of gardens in Montreal to check out just a few of the initiatives taking place in our big urban backyard!The tour will stop at a rooftop garden in the Plateau, a squat garden in the Mile End, a community garden in NDG, a land-share garden in NDG and at Campus Crops’ very own terrace garden on McGill Campus.

Tour begins at the Campus Crops garden, behind 3534 University at 1 pm. And will end back at the garden around 4 pm.

++ It's not too late to add your garden to the tour! contact campuscrops@gmail.com ++

Tuesday, June 21, 2011

Campus Crop's terrace garden behind the James Administration building on McGill Campus is being set up this week to be wheelchair accessible for its gardeners.

Growing on the terrace this summer are many containers of peppers, tomatoes, beans, peas, eggplant, cucumbers, kale, and colourful flowers. Come learn about urban agriculture and go home with veggies all summer long!

If you or someone you know would be interested in joining Campus Crops during its work sessions, contact campuscrops@gmail.com for more info or to express any accessibility needs.

Monday, May 16, 2011

Sunday May 15th was our first official day out in the garden, and it was a huge success!

During our DIG-IN! event, 15 tenacious gardeners braved the rain to come lend a hand and start up the garden.

To get our growing season into gear a couple of tasks needed to be done.

First, we needed to reshape the beds of our garden to maximize space and have better crop yields. This year we moved from a basic row system to a keyhole garden system. This is a permaculture technique that allows us to maximize space and rain water catchment in the garden. Before, the walkways between our rows used to take up over 40% of the garden, but not anymore! This is roughly what a keyhole garden may look like:

The next step was to build strong trellises for our vertical growing plants (beans, tomatoes, cucumbers, etc.) Last year we tried poles stuck in the ground, with twine or netting to support the plants. Maybe it was our soil, the materials of the poles, or that we didn't dig the latter deep enough in the ground... whatever it was, things had a tendency to droop over or fall. So! This year, we're trying some new trellising ideas!

On Sunday, our crafty woodworkers created a beautiful trellis made out of pine. It will beplaced on the terrace space behind James Admin. Ten green recycling bins can fit within its frame. This is what it looks like:

We're going to build two other types of trellises on future garden days.

For our cukes, we'll have a long chicken-wire ramp like this:

And for our terrace tomatoes we're going to try and build an arch-shaped trellis made fromPVC tubing sunk into buckets filled with cement. More photos to come for those who are

more visually inclined!

Finally, the biggest endeavour of the day was to remix our containers on the terrace.

To each of our bins we added about 2L of perlite to prevent soil compaction. We have about 60 containers--either recycled green recycling bins or large ice cream tubs--so you can imagine the immensity of the task! But our super troopers got to it, and mixed most of the bins.

Tasks for future gardening days: finish to mix the remaining bins, add compost to the new beds and the containers, plant seeds and seedlings, buildmore trellises, set up an irrigation and compost system, and operation knot-weed destroy!!!

Saturday, April 2, 2011

Applications are due: April 11th, 2011 by 5pmThe positions are open to all. Only applicants accepted for interview will be contacted.Send your CV and cover letter to mk.hiring.committee@gmail.com

Campus Crops is hiring a Garden Coordinator. The position would be responsible for

- day to day operations in the garden: setting gardening hours with volunteers, planting, building self-watering containers, weeding, harvesting, etc.- collaborating with Midnight Kitchen to hold monthly food politics workshops or events- community outreach, holding activities for summer camps, recruiting volunteers- collaborating with Santropol Roulant's Edible Campus Garden on workshops, events, and volunteer base - preparing a workshop for RadFrosh at the end of August- attending weekly meetings with Midnight Kitchen staff to check-in on tasks and send out an update to the collective- liaise with administration on campus (SSMU, SPF, MSE, Grounds, etc.) - design and facilitate a training for new collective members in the fall (including an overview of our mandate and consensus decision-making)- prepare an extensive written job report to be presented to the collective at the end of September

Campus Crops is an urban gardening initiative at McGill University's downtown campus. We have been running a garden behind the McGill School of Environment building at 3534 University for three years. Last summer we expanded to the terrace space behind the James Admin building and built a self-watering container garden. If you have any questions feel free to email campuscrops@gmail.com or check out our blog for what sort of things we've done in the past!

Requirements- Ability to work autonomously- Strong organizational skills- Strong knowledge of political, social, economic and environmental issues- Commitment to social change and to Campus Crops' mandate of social and environmental justice and ability to apply this to all aspects of the job (see link for mandate)- Ability to work in English- Ability to plan events as a team- Knowledge of urban agriculture and/or food preservationAssets:- Familiarity with Campus Crops’ and Midnight Kitchen's work- Familiarity with Montreal-area community groups - Ability to speak French- Ability to preform the physical talks involved with garden upkeepWe welcome a diversity of applicants including those from traditionally marginalized groups, and we encourage you to mention this in your application.

MK POSITIONS

All the paid positions begin on May 1, and will go until September 17.The positions are for 12-15 hours per week.Applications are due: April 11th, 2011 by 5pmThe positions are open to all. Only applicants accepted for interview will be contacted. Send your CV and cover letter to mk.hiring.committee@gmail.com

NOTE: You are welcome to apply for more than one position. Please let us know if you are willing to do a position different from the one that you’ve applied for.

I. COOK BOOK, HISTORY ZINE, AND PUBLICITY MATERIAL COORDINATORNOTE: We ask that you provide 2 art samples (in .jpg format) if you apply for this position.

Responsibilities include:

* Collect and test accessible and affordable vegan cooking recipes, and compile them into a bilingual cookbook * Compile a bilingual “History of MK,” by collecting anecdotes from past and current collective members (can be included as a section in the Cookbook)* Organize the publication/distribution of the Cookbook/History Zine, including a launch party. Distribute it to both groups within Montreal and to food collectives in different cities* Design, print, and distribute new outreach materials including pamphlets, booklets, posters, buttons, stickers, postcards, etc.* Update the MK website to include excerpts of the Cookbook/History Zine, and new MK publicity material* Work with the Administrative/Operations Coordinator to fund these projects, and ensure that project costs remain within the allocated budget* Provide weekly progress updates to the Midnight Kitchen collective via email* Attend collective meetings, reporting on the progress of the Cookbook/History Zine and new publicity materials* Assist in coordinating caterings* Coordinate training for the Fall 2011 staff* Work with the other Midnight Kitchen summer staff and the Campus Crops Garden Coordinator for support and accountability

Responsibilities Include:* Keep finances organized and transparent* Manage daily operations * Maintain communication with SSMU (Student Society of McGill University) executive* Work with the SSMU VP of Finance to create a budget for the 2011-2012 year* Coordinate bulk food orders* Create an account with a new bulk food provider * Work with the Cookbook, History Zine and Publicity Materials Coordinator to find funding for their projects, ensuring that they remain within allocated budgets* Clean and reorganize the office and kitchen* Make small purchases of new tools (with feedback from collective members and volunteers)* Research into purchasing large equipment and apply for grants to facilitate these purchases* Work with SSMU’s VP of Clubs and Services to coordinate the upgrade of room 302* Research the logistics of serving breakfast and provide a report to the collective in September * Provide weekly progress updates to the Midnight Kitchen collective via email* Attend collective meetings, reporting on finances, kitchen logistics, and daily operations* Draft the job contracts for Fall 2011 staff, and submit them into SSMU * Work with the other Midnight Kitchen summer staff and the Campus Crops Garden Coordinator for support and accountability

Responsibilities Include:* Organize monthly workshops/events on food politics (co-coordinate with the Campus Crops Garden Coordinator)* Assist the Cookbook, History Zine and Publicity Materials Coordinator in promoting/distributing the History Zine/Cookbook, including the launch party* Research local grocers who may be willing to donate fresh produce to MK* Work to strengthen our relationship with our current grocery donors* Check the email account everyday* Maintain and update the MK website / Facebook page * Communicate with groups about Catering Requests and Kitchen Booking Requests* Coordinate caterings (including the Anarchist Bookfair)* Work to build relationships with other food security groups in Montreal* Organize a food safety training for the collective in September* Provide weekly progress updates to the Midnight Kitchen collective via email* Attend collective meetings, reporting on new catering requests and outreach work* Organize the hiring committee for the Fall 2011 staff * Coordinate training for the Fall 2011 staff* Work with the other Midnight Kitchen summer staff and the Campus Crops Garden Coordinator for support and accountability

Thursday, March 24, 2011

It's been a while but we wanted to post our new work-in-progress mandate. The language may be a bit rough around the edges but we hope to at least get our general ideas across while we continue to work out the kinks. We would love feedback...Enjoy!

Campus Crops Mandate (as of March 8th, 2011)

What we do

Campus Crops is a collective at McGill that works on urban agriculture initiatives throughout the year. Our goal is to grow food on campus and provide students and community members with space and opportunities to learn by doing. We also seek to promote discussion around issues of food politics and food security through social and educational events such as workshops, film screenings and potlucks. During the warmer months we run a garden behind the McGill School of Environment building at 3534 University, as well as a terrace garden behind the James Administration building. We work closely with Midnight Kitchen and are a working group of QPIRG McGill.

Why we do it

Our goal is to empower people of all-skill levels. We seek to reclaim neglected or under-used urban spaces and instead, put it to good use by creating alternative food systems. Additionally, we hope that our work is a step towards decentralizing and de-institutionalizing skills that have been monopolized by the capitalist food system. The skills that we hope to pass on will be done through the means of popular education, knowledge sharing and gettin' dirteeee.

How we do it

We are a collective that organizes in a non-hierarchical and inclusive manner. Decisions are made through consensus and positions/tasks rotate between members in order to work against knowledge becoming centralized with just a few.